2002 Dodge ram 1500 Lamp Out Sensor Troubleshooting

Updated 03/16/2018 | Published 03/15/2018

Question:

I have a 2002 Dodge Quad Cab SLT 4.7 v8. My lamp out only comes on when I have my park or head lights on and use my blinkers or flashers. ALL my bulbs are good. I have replaced the rear tail lights and boards. All bulbs have been changed and I still have this problem. I can not find the problem with this. I have tested for a short and that is a negative, no short anywhere. What could be causing this problem. This is driving me crazy.

asked by: Josh

Expert Reply:

Looking around on the internet and this seems to be a somewhat popular problem with Dodge trucks around the age of your 2002 model. A lot of times it's dirty connection somewhere that just needs to be cleaned up.

The "lamp out" indicator works on low current draw such as would be experienced if a bulb filament in a lighting circuit were burned out. Therefore, anything that increases circuit resistance (which drops current flow) can trigger a "lamp out" indicator. If it were me, I'd start by cleaning all the bulb terminals and sockets with contact cleaner, WD-40, etc.

Here's one guys situation similar to yours and how he fixed it:

What it was, I had a loose bulb connection on my driver side tail light. I actually stopped and got some new bulbs and replaced all of them since I was going to do one replacement. But everytime I would hit a bump the light would either go on or off. With the bulb loose in the socket it arced a few times and made a poor connection. I took some sand paper and smoothed it out, greased it up and replaced it. So far the fix worked out for me.

expert reply by: Jameson C